Porous carbon materials are materials which can be used in wide areas such as adsorption materials, separation membranes, electrode materials and catalyst carriers, and have been variously studied for activated carbon, carbon nanotube, mesoporous silica, zeolite, template carbon produced from a template of fine particles or the like, and the like.
Among them, the activated carbon has been widely used with a focus on industrial materials such as the adsorption materials and the catalyst carriers, utilizing its large specific surface. In general, the activated carbon is obtained by activating a carbon material obtained by carbonization of cellulose, a resin or the like to form pores. However, since the pores are formed unidirectionally from a surface of the carbon material to an inner part thereof during the activation process, communicated pores in which the pores are continuously communicated with one another are not formed. Accordingly, even when a high specific surface material is obtained by allowing the activation to proceed, fluidity in pores of a material to be adsorbed or the like is inferior, which has caused such a problem that it takes much time before an adsorption substance or the like arrives at the surface. Also, when activated carbon particles are aggregated, pores inside the aggregation are not utilized because the pores are not communicated with one another, which also causes such a problem that the original surface area cannot be fully utilized. Accordingly, continuous pores have been desired.
For example, Patent Document 1 describes a technique for obtaining activated carbon fiber by activating porous carbon fiber to form pores. However, when simply activated, the continuous pores cannot be formed.
Also, Patent Document 2 describes a technique for obtaining porous carbon fiber by mixing a carbonizable material with an eliminable material. However, the carbonizable material and the eliminable material are a combination of incompatible systems, and the mere addition of a compatibilizing agent was unable to form continuous pores.
On the other hand, Patent Document 3 shows an example of forming continuous pores by mixing a thermosetting resin with a thermoplastic resin, curing the thermosetting resin, subsequently removing the thermoplastic resin, and then performing carbonization. However, since the surface area is small, applications which can be utilized have been limited.
Also, Patent Document 4 discloses porous carbon having mesopores and micropores, in which carbon walls constituting contours of the mesopores have a three-dimensional network structure. However, although the carbon walls continue, voids formed by template particles only partially continue, and communicated pores have not been formed.